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PROBLEMS BECOME OPPORTUNITIES FOR VIDEO PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS

The Problem for Persons with A Hearing Loss
Videos cannot be readily understood by deaf or hard of hearing persons. Not being able to hear narration, dialogue, and other sounds critically limits the amount of information received. Something must be added to compensate for this limitation and the most common form of this visual compensation is captioning.
Additional problems result as audio and video clips with sound play an increasingly important role on the Internet and within CD-ROM and multimedia materials. Access problems for deaf persons multiply daily. Captioning techniques have not even been fully developed. The number of captioned educational videos is very small, totaling less than 15% of the number available for purchase. No more than 5% of the newer technologies have captions.

A Marketing Opportunity Results
The National Institute on Deafness reports that there are more than 28 million Americans with a hearing loss. Who are the disabled Americans who do not have equal access? They are 23% of people, aged 65-74 who develop a hearing loss, 33% of those aged 75-84, 48% of those aged 85 and older, the 1 out of 1,000
children born deaf, and your relatives or friends or neighbors. These people can never enjoy a first-run movie, and rely solely on captioned TV and captioned videos for access. Federal law recognizes that fact and has mandated certain requirements of the producers, distributors and users of this media. This represents a rare opportunity for you.

The ESL Problem and Another Opportunity
English as a Second Language (ESL), English Language Studies (ELS), or whatever name you choose to give it—is a huge and growing domestic market. For example, 25% of all Adult Education classes in the United States are ESL—and still the waiting lists grow. There are 30 million people in America for whom English is a second language. The U.S. Hispanic community now numbers 27.2 million—almost identical in size to the population of Canada. Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, with the Asian American population surging from 7.3 million to 9.8 million between 1990 and 1995.
New Americans from all over the world are eager to learn our language. And nothing can teach them English better than videos with captions. Studies show that the ESL population dramatically improves its English language, vocabulary, and comprehension by watching captioning. These same studies show that captioned television is a great motivation to ESL students.

Captioning Prospects Expand with Literacy Groups
The National Center for Education Statistics estimated that about 21% of the adult population—more than 40 million Americans over the age of 16—has only rudimentary reading and writing skills. Further, it is estimated that efforts to provide remedial assistance to these individuals reach under 10%.
"Great," you may be saying, "but my videos aren’t literacy videos." But, you will find they are when you add captions. By coupling your power-packed visuals with sound-correlated captions, you have synergized your media with an unbeatable literacy formula. Literacy is an achievable national goal. It can be significantly aided through increased numbers of captioned videos.

To Your Advantage in the International Community
Within this multilingual planet of ours, the most widely spoken language of all is the one that you readers of this paper are using right now: ENGLISH. It follows only too naturally, then, that English itself—in one form or another—is one of the USA’s biggest exports. Already, the undisputed idiom of global businesspersons, English is also (and for that very reason) the required second language in many countries and widely taught in others. By offering your overseas buyers or dealers the option of captions, you are—in effect—giving them a whole new catalog of products to choose from. You are also helping them to use your regular material in a very special way: to master English.

Other Problems That Can Work to Your Advantage
On average, kids spend over 30 hours a week watching television. By turning on captions, parents can turn those entertainment hours into learning hours. Studies have shown that hearing youngsters who watched captioned TV were able to significantly improve their vocabulary and oral-reading fluency. Captioned media
and TV can be described as multi-sensory tools. When educators use captioned media, their hearing students have the opportunity to experience watching, listening, and reading simultaneously. Also, the number one special education problem in the United States is learning disabilities. Captioned television has benefited both adults and children in improving comprehension as well as increasing self-confidence. Captions facilitate speech development, oral fluency, and increase understanding of input in both the areas of language and content.

We Will Help Make Your Opportunities
If you don’t know where to turn regarding captioning information, contact us at the Captioned Media Program. We are a nonprofit consumer organization, with an agreement from the U.S. Department of Education to select and caption videos. We will provide you with free, objective advice and information. We also have contact information regarding schools for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, English as a Second Language and senior citizens’ groups, various organizations for persons with a hearing loss, literacy groups, and federal agencies. Again, there is no charge to you for this assistance.

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